Sometimes it's easy to understand how legends of hauntings get started. These towering, incredible castles and mansions look like they should contain spirits — and each one has a fantastic ghost story to go along with it.

Eltz Castle, above the Moselle River in Germany, construction started in the 1150s

Maybe it's the only castle that is still owned by the same family that lived here 33 generations ago in the mid-12th century.

There are some ghosts of medieval knights, and Agnes:

"There is a breastplate and battleaxe in the Countesses’s bedroom. This belongs to the castle’s resident ghost, Agnes, who, as the story goes, died defending the castle and her honor from an undesirable suitor." – according to Lacey Falcone.

Raynham Hall, built in the 1630s, Norfolk, Great Britain

The sister of Robert Walpole, the first Prime Minister of Great Britain was the second wife of a British Whig statesman named Charles Townshend, who was famous for his violent temper. When Townshend discovered that his wife had cheated him with Lord Wharton he locked the Lady to her rooms. She remained there until her death in 1726.

Her ghost was first observed in 1835, and the famous photograph was taken by Captain Hubert C. Provand in 1936.

Bran Castle, the home of Dracula in the Carpathian Mountains, near Bran, Romania, built in the late 13th or early 14th century. It was a royal residence of the Romanian Royal Family between 1920 and 1947.

There are no evidences that it was the home of Prince Vlad Dracul, but according to legends some of the impaled people are haunting here.

Woodchester Mansion, Woodchester, Gloucestershire, England

In 1902, a vicar was reported to have seen a strange apparition at the mansion’s gates. A phantom horseman has also been seen on the mansion’s drive. It is said that the Mansion itself is the epicentre of all the haunting happening in the area. There is the Tall Man of the Chapel which has been seen many times and the elemental in the house’s cellar. The Mansion is said to be the home of some of the scariest ghosts in the United Kingdom.

Visitors have collapsed and have been attacked by the ghostly dwellers of the mansion. There is a floating head which has been seen by many visitors in one of the bathrooms. There is also the spectre of the old woman who likes to attack female visitors by grabbing them in the dark. It is said that the reason why the mansion is haunted is because it stands on the site of the three previous buildings which are also haunted.

The mansion has its own chapel and satanic rituals have been reported in the chapel. People have reported hearing a woman singing an Irish folk song in the scullery. The ghost of a young girl has been seen several times playing and running up and down the stairs of the mansion’s first floor.

Canada's most haunted castle, the Casa Loma, a Gothic Revival style castle in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, built between 1911 and 1914, designed by E. J. Lennox

Leap Castle (originally called Léim Uí Bhanáin, which means Leap of the O'Bannons), north of Roscrea, Ireland, built around 1250 for the O'Bannon clan on a site that has been occupied since at least the Iron Age

The castle was largely destroyed by fire in 1922, and only converted to a habitable home in 1991 by Sean and Anne Ryan. They have the best ghost story ever, according to Haunted Britain:

"In May 2002 Sean Ryan, a world-class musician, and along with his wife Anne, owner of Leap Castle, found a ghostly old man sitting in a chair by a downstairs fireplace. Having bade his phantom guest "good day," Sean continued about his business. After all, a new ghost dropping by unannounced, is just part of life’s rich tapestry, when you happen to live in what has long been considered Ireland’s most haunted castle."

The place is haunted by an Elemental, which is known as It. After a Paracelsian concept there are four types: gnomes, sylphs, salamanders and undines (nymphs). This creature could be a gnome, because there are legends about a sheep-sized, rotting flesh-smelling entity with human face and creepy black eyes.

Edinburgh Castle, Edinburgh, Scotland, from the 12-16th centuries. It was built on a volcanic rock and stands upon the plug of an extinct volcano.

Lots of visitors have seen an old man in a leather apron, a mysterious piper or a headless drummer boy, but many people shared experiences about being pulled, touched, felt temperature drops and seen mists.